Update: NaNoWriMo Warmup Challenge - 09/10

[wordwhacker]

Goal: 25,000
Words Written: 1,857
Percentage of goal: 7.4%
Percentage of month past: 33.3%

Catching up, slowly but surely. I will wake up and do some writing before work today. Mark my typed words.

Comments

[diamondfemme.livejournal.com]

I have to ask for the sake of curiosity.

Do you have any writing-rituals or things that help you create? Any odd things that help you get through writer's block? Are you the sort who outlines and diagrams and plots out family trees and character development charts, or do you just plunge right in and go?

[wordwhacker.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm the world's biggest procrastinator. I have learned that if I want to write, I have to literally schedule in about three hours for procrastination, on a normal day. So I go "I'm going to write!" and then proceed to listen to music, surf the internet, suddenly jump into discussions on postqueer, whatever, and *then* I can write. It's quite sad, really.

Sometimes I can beat it, but not often.

This is going to sound trite, but putting on some music usually really helps me get the gumption to write. A large part of it is probably the fact that putting on headphones ties me to my computer, thus limiting my capacity to go elsewhere and fiddle with things. I am, like, *extremely* distractable.

I really *should* write outlines and plot out family trees, and sometimes I find myself wanting to (and I'll probably start getting into the habit of it for lengthy, plot-intensive projects), but usually I just get an idea, procrastinate for the pre-requisite amount of time, and then jump right in. Either that or I'll jot down the jist of the idea in a notepad file, stick it in my writing folder, and forget about it forever and ever. I'll get back to them someday, I swear.

[diamondfemme.livejournal.com]

I've also had luck with the 'headphones tied to computer' trick, also it is less successful with a laptop than a desktop.

Unfortunately, I'm so overly anal about some things, that I do all these extensive outlines and family trees and stuff (it's a sickness, I tell you, a sickness!) and sometimes I never refer to them again. But I guess the physical act of creating them perma-prsses the info on my brain?

Best cure I've found for writer's block: long hot shower and exfoliation with the yummy smelling vanilla-sugar-and-orange-oil-magical-overpriced-product. For some reason, an odd combination of factors (being naked, in a hot steamy room, and covering my skin with stickily sweet sugar scrub) makes have glorious epiphanies and I'm usually in a mad dash to rinse the remaining sugar scrub off my skin, grab a robe and a towel to turban my hair in, and run for the desk/computer before I forget. Go ahead, laugh. It's a humerous image.

[cassaclyzm.livejournal.com]

Humerous, yes. But it's also just about the *perfect* example as to why I am hopelessly in love with ever-so-slightly geeky femmes. ;-)

I should try using scent as a means for breaking down writer's block, though - maybe if I light some incense (as long as it's not a food or berry smell - that'll just make me hungry) it'll help me get/stay in the mood to write. Something to try, anyway.

It is a good example, isn't it?

[diamondfemme.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it does lead to dilemmmas: Finish exfoliating/rinsing shampoo from hair or write brilliant chapter?

They say that olfactory is the strongest form of memory, perhaps there would be something to using it to work through writer's block?

I'm a little embarassed to mention my other anti-writer's block technique, but hell, I'll confess up to it. *blushing* Believe it or not, I've found that writing really bad, cheesie, cliched Harry Potter fanfic (particularly slash) is an amazing tonic. But the shower method is ever so much more enjoyable. . .